After a lot of static, cricket coverage resumes

The summer of Test cricket begins when Australia and India meet at the Adelaide Oval this morning. The mercury will reach 36, with no rain expected over the scheduled five days.

Yes, hot enough for us.

Captains Virat Kohli and Tim Paine.Credit:AAP

Fans all over the nation will feel entitled to breathe a sigh of relief when the umpire finally calls ''Play''. The summer of cricket began uneasily. The era of blanket coverage of international cricket on free-to-air television ended with the transfer of rights to the pay TV service Foxtel. Fans woke yesterday to the jarring news that Cricket Australia had switched mobile streaming rights to a new more expensive subscription platform.

Less jarring, perhaps, this summer of cricket does not feature Channel Nine for the first time in 40 years, after free-to-air rights were won by Channel Seven. But Steve Smith, the man with the ''stuff'' to be the best since Donald Bradman will be watching from his preferred possie like any ordinary fan instead of leading his country.

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Australian cricket has been through tumultuous and dispiriting year since victory in the Ashes series in January. The ensuing Test tour of South Africa ended in disaster after Smith and his vice-captain David Warner, and batsman Cameron Bancroft, were implicated in ball-tampering. Australians were heartbroken at seeing their national team branded as cheats. Smith and Warner were banned from top-level cricket for a year; Bancroft for nine months. Coach Darren Lehmann quit, and in November, damning reports into the game's culture and ethics led to the resignations of top officials. Fast forward to Wednesday, and another jolt: the arrest of the brother of leading Australian batsman Usman Khawaja was all over the front pages.

India has never won a Test series win in Australia. But this may be the year for the world's No.1 ranked side. With Australia's top batsmen able to play no part, a giant crater has opened up in the line-up. But the bowling squad is strong, led by aggressive paceman Mitchell Starc and champion off-spinner Nathan Lyon. India, captained by world No.1 batsman Virat Kohli, have made no wild claims, but this will be their best chance of finally humbling Australia at home on their 12th attempt.

A newly independent India sent its first cricket team to Australia in 1947-48. Bradman's side put Lala Amarnath's side to the sword 4-0 in the five Test-series. It would be 20 years, then another 10, before the Indians returned. The frequency of tours has picked up this century, as a confident nation asserts itself on the world stage - and the cricket pitch. It could be argued that Indian tours of Australia now rank below only the Ashes series for ''edge''.

It is said that cricket is an Indian game merely invented by the English, a humorous reflection of the fanaticism the game attracts on the subcontinent. Now India calls the shots. Indian billionaires bankroll limited-overs matches, including the wildly popular condensed version of the game, Twenty20, before exuberant houses and colossal TV and online audiences. These moguls can afford to hire the world's best players, causing national cricket boards to bend to their schedules. In the Test arena, where the game's traditions live, India can decide whether or not to play Test matches at night: to the chagrin of Adelaide officials, they refused this year.

Today 22 men, not quite the best their countries have to offer, but the best we can have, will be locked in combat. The pledge from Australia is competitive cricket without the ugly stuff. Here's to a memorable series.